Alpha Rising Read Free Page A

admired her technical skills and enjoyed her feisty attitude.
Tracked her down later and we’ve been together ever since.” He
paused, then chuckled and added, “It’s a good thing I like people
who speak their mind, ’cause Kaz’s thoughts run from her brain to
her lips, uncensored.”
    “ How’d she score a spot on
the AstroLab?”
    “ She’s a technical whiz.
Aced every phase of training and suggested a modification that was
approved and incorporated. She’s only twenty-six. Got drafted into
an experimental astronaut space program straight from high
school.”
    “ Sounds like a great
lady.”
    “ Yeah, my little Latin
spitfire.” He raised his eyebrows. “You got a special
man?”
    “ First, Almighty God. Then,
Paul is my true love on the earthly plane. He’s in Jerusalem right
now.”
    “ Jerusalem?”
    “ With the American
Anthropological Society’s research team, carbon dating artifacts at
Hebrew University—piecing together evidence of Noah’s
ark.”
    “ Interesting. How’d you
meet?”
    “ Two years ago I was on the
balcony of my condo watching a spectacular meteor shower. They were
comin’ down one a minute. Paul, a handsome archeologist working on
The Noah Project, was on the balcony next door. I’ve been
fascinated by Noah’s ark since I was a little girl. I have a huge
collection of Noah trinkets—plates, snow globes, jewelry.” She
paused for a breath. “We’ve been together ever since that
night.”
    Bach smiled. “Sounds like the two of you
were meant to be.”
    “ Yeah, and we both love
God’s kingdom. I traverse the stars; Paul explores terra
firma.”
    Bach flipped through papers on a clipboard.
“Know anything about G.R., the doctor on the AstroLab?”
    She shuddered. “Oh, yeah. He instructed my
medical class. He’s an excellent doctor, but a little strange. He
cracks jokes at odd times, and snorts when he laughs which draws
attention to his Neanderthal-like face. So the class always
laughed, but it wasn’t at his jokes. Worse is his irritating habit
of beginning almost every sentence with, ‘In my opinion.’”
    “ Uh-oh.” Bach rolled his
eyes. “I bet Kaz breaks him of that before we get back
home.”
     
     
    *****
     
     

CHAPTER FOUR
     
     
    Lost in deep space in the AstroLab, Lynch,
Deni, Kaz, and G.R. performed like trained professionals the first
few days of their crisis, but their reality changed for the worse
when repeated attempts failed to restore the main powerplant or
regain contact with Earth and they faced the fact that they were
helpless to get back home on their own. One of the few positives
was that their Artificial Gravity (AG) unit remained functional on
backup power.
    Kaz tapped a stream of data into a computer
at her mid-ship workstation. Lynch hovered nearby, his lived-in
face and close-set blue eyes riveted to her activity. She shifted
in her seat. “Please find something else to do. I can’t concentrate
with you hanging over my shoulder.”
    His nostrils flared as he spoke. “Just hurry
up with that feasibility study.” Six strides of his long legs took
him back to the cockpit. He interrupted Deni, seated at her pilot’s
position, and complained in his thick Tennessee drawl, “We’ve
accomplished nothin’ drifting in space. We’re gonna link up with
the old space station.”
    Deni hoisted her six-foot, two-inch frame
from the pilot’s seat and stared at the commander face to face. Her
eyes opened so wide the whites looked twice the size against her
dark brown skin. “Too big a risk. Too far away.”
    Lynch’s chest rose with a hard breath.
“We’re not gonna get back home in this ship. So you got a better
idea, Deni?”
    “ Yes. Let’s try for planet
Urusa. Kaz’s idea to use the spacewalk jetpack’s power as
transitory propulsion is a good one. We can make it to Urusa if it
works.”
    “ I ain’t sacrificin’ the
jetpack’s powerpacks on speculation. Urusa may not be a biosphere.
We’re better off usin’ that